Primary Resources: We Are of Another Race

Excerpt from Charles Mackay, from Life and Liberty in America: or, Sketches of a Tour in the United States and Canada in 1857-1858.

Language of the free North: We shall not make the black man a slave; we shall not buy him or sell him; but we shall not associate with him. He shall be free to live, and to thrive, if he can, and to pay taxes and perform duties; but he shall not be free to dine and drink at our board -- to share with us the deliberations of the jury box -- to sit upon the seat of judgment, however capable he may be -- to plead in our courts -- to represent us in the Legislature -- to attend us at the bed of sickness and pain -- to mingle with us in the concert-room, the lecture-room, the theatre, or the church, or to marry with our daughters. We are of another race, and he is inferior. Let him know his place -- and keep it.

Mackay, Charles. Life and Liberty in America: or, Sketches of a Tour in the United States and Canada in 1857-1858. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1859.